A reasonably odd biomaterial has undergone testing in Brazil and is being used quite well to treat burns. Tilapia is a freshwater fish native to Africa but common in Brazilian rivers. And is the odd material that saves human skin.
Recently, scientists have experimented with utilizing its skin to speed up the healing process during skin grafts. For instance, a case report from 2019 described the unconventional therapy’s success in curing burns brought on by a gunpowder explosion.
Furthermore, tilapia skin is an ideal piscine plaster because of its high type I collagen content, tensile strength, and human-like morphology.
Dr Edmar Maciel, author of the study, said,
prevents loss of moisture and proteins on the wound and it stays bonded to the bed of the wound until it heals over,
This also enables faster recovery.
The study involves a 23-year-old man with burns to his arms, face, and chest, as described in the paper. He used Nile tilapia fish skin to aid in his rehabilitation. However, before the skin was examined for bacteria and fungus and placed in the refrigerator to reduce the risk of infection, it was chemically sterilized, treated with glycerol, and exposed to radiation.
They cleaned and removed necrotic and fibrinous tissue from the wounds. The man’s arms were then covered with the tilapia skin. After applying gauze and a bandage, silver sulfadiazine cream was added. The bandage and gauze were removed every 72 hours for the first week to ensure the tilapia skin had clung to the lesion.
REEPITHELIALIZATION
On days 12 and 17, reepithelialization was seen on the right and left arms. The tilapia skin, which had dried and loosened from the burn, was peeled to reveal the skin’s healing. Moreover, there were no side effects either.
Odorico de Morais, a professor at the Federal University of Ceará, said in 2017
The fish skin is usually thrown away, so we are using this product to convert it into something of social benefit
Tilapia skin has been used for the treatment of pediatric burns in the past and suddenly sounds like it has medicinal values.
